For much of his high school career, Blake Greene’s interests looked disparate. He likes creating art. He likes analyzing literature. He’s concerned about social justice issues. He wants a career that will allow him to support himself comfortably. Imagining, let alone finding, a college that could tie all those threads together seemed nearly impossible.

Fortunately, Greene doesn’t dwell on impossibilities. He kept looking. He kept talking to his teachers about what he hoped to find. He applied to a long list of schools all over the map geographically and in their approach to education. In the end, he did not find a school he would describe as perfect, but he found a place with the challenges and opportunities to tie those interests together: Rhode Island School of Design, better known as RISD. Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time, there lived a girl who thought she knew exactly which college she wished to attend. She had her heart set on living in New York, so she researched every school in the state and by eighth grade she had made her decision. Application list in hand, she went off to visit three schools, and just like Goldilocks, she found that one was too small, one was too big and crowded, and one was just right. Now Kim Skokin is planning to live happily-ever-after for the next four years at Syracuse University, proving college admissions really can be a fairytale. Read the rest of this entry »

Sarah Yamamoto knew exactly where she wanted to go to school. It was one of the top universities in the country. She visited the campus and loved it. She spent some time in the surrounding city and felt right at home. And then she figured out what she wanted to study and decided it wasn’t the right school at all. As she researched other schools, she decided a university 2,900 miles away was a much better fit for her. The wind of freedom blows, promises the motto of Stanford University, and that wind blew Yamamoto right down to the Bay Area. Read the rest of this entry »

For Tim Chang, choosing a college was less about making a choice and more about letting go of the decision altogether and following where God was leading. It turns out that was just the sort of unconventional wisdom Rice University looks for in students and Chang is now a proud member of the Owls’ Class of 2016. Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: This story is the first 2011-2012 entry in Charles Wright’s College Choices blog series. Please check back soon for more stories or to read the 34 stories from the classes of 2010 and 2011.

When it came to choosing a short list of colleges, Anthony Wohns took a step back. He thought carefully about the experience he hopes to have for the next four years and the doors his college education will open in the future. He chose Harvard as his top choice because of the sense of belonging he felt among Harvard students and the strengths of academic programs in his areas of interest. Read the rest of this entry »

Outstanding music students from across Washington received top honors by being selected to participate in the annual Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) All-State Youth Honor Choir. Charles Wright Academy was represented by sixth graders Naomi Roberts, Diana Davidson and Emily Halladay who joined with other outstanding young performers statewide over President’s weekend in Yakima. These talented musicians—selected through rigorous auditions—first rehearsed together under the direction of nationally known conductors and then performed a final concert in the historic Capital Theatre in downtown Yakima. Read the rest of this entry »

The cast, crew and pit of CWA’s winter theater production and making final preparations to take the stage this weekend as they present Starmites, a post-apocalyptic superhero musical. Shows are scheduled for Thursday, February 9, through Saturday, February 11, at 7:30pm in the Donn Laughlin Theater. Tickets are $5 for students, faculty and staff, and $10 for general admission. Seats can be reserved in advance with Phyllis Kriese at 253.620.8300.

Read the rest of this entry »

CWA freshman Young-eon Kim of Federal Way recently received honorable mention in the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers 2012 Nengajo Contest. Students from Charles Wright and 106 other schools across the United States submitted 570 cards with original designs to celebrate the new Year of the Water Dragon.

Kim is a student in Stephanie Glenn’s Japanese 400 class. She studied the language in Middle School and spent last summer as an exchange student in Japan, allowing her to advance in the course sequence. She is also studying sculpture this year.

Upper School visual arts teacher Brian Hutcheson gave his class a unique challenge this fall: Don’t just create 3D art. Animate it! Now the products of their work – created individually and in teams – are on display in the Upper School’s newly christened Ted Sanford Art Gallery and visitors can marvel not only at the creativity of their projects but the ingenuity as well. Read the rest of this entry »

It was another busy week around the Lower School at CWA! Check out this Five Photo Friday. Read the rest of this entry »